New Kid in Town
by unknownhand
Summary: Ariel has a disturbing dream but why does the new guy at school seem so important to stopping catastrophe. OC and later a few modified Marvel characters. T for non-character death and some blood. Set around season 3 Ariel 8th grade  Romance later
1. Dreaming

Aurthor's note: The beginning of the story is a little repetitive, it's consistent with the show but the repeating ends in mid 2nd chapter. After that the players are in place and the story becomes linear.

Ariel was enjoying the Founders Day activities it was a beautiful day and by Phoenix standards a comfortable temperature.. She, Hannah, and Melissa were taking a break from checking out the flea market and they'd just gotten smoothies from one of the venders

Melissa saw her cousin show up and went to meet her. Hannah and I found a shady place to stand a little relieved that they didn't have to be careful not to say anything that might remind Melissa of her recent breakup with Chad.

They were near the main entrance to the park where Founder's Day was being held and had a good view of the market. The vendors to our right and to the left was the stage. All they could see was the back and one side of the stage but it didn't matter since there wouldn't be anybody performing until that night.

There was a chain link fence at the back of the crowd section and on the other side of it were the rides for little kids. It wasn't a fair so those were the only rides there were. Past that was a big scaffolding with all the lights. There was a second fence covered with signs that surrounded a storage area to the left of the scaffold and kid rides.

Even without real rides Founder's Day was fun. Between the market, the artist, food, the bands and just having something to do it was a nice change. Her dad was taking Bridget around to see the market and as long as Ariel and Hannah checked in with him every once in a while they didn't get treated like kids.

"You should have gotten those earrings Hannah, they'd look great on you."

"They were to expensive and they were kinda heavy." The redhead answered.

We watched the crowd and the people walking by us. Hannah smiled and I followed her eyes to see Hector a guy from our school that's a year or two older then us wearing a silly purple hat. We'd tried a hat like it on and laughed about it at one of the tables but hadn't bothered paying seven dollars for it. Apparently Hector had decided it was worth it for laughs.

"I'm so glad it didn't rain this year."

Ariel agreed and ask what she thought about some movies that were coming out soon.

"Looks kinda sappy but the actor is cute."

Then we heard a high pitched noise coming from the other side of the stage. We moved to get a better look as the noise turned to crashing and we saw the top of the lights tilt backward. It was three maybe four feet tall and wider then that, she wasn't sure how thick it was or far back it went but it looked heavy as it leaned left and back.

People were screaming, the kiddy rides were all suddenly stopped and adults were running toward the rides. She feels guilt and relief that Marie didn't come today. Then the section of lights and bars fell. It hit one of the rides and Ariel was thankful she couldn't see clearly what happened very well from where she was. She and Hannah both turned away as the screams turned to pain and horror.

**Ariel tossed and turned in her bed partially waking up then nodding back off to sleep.**

It was great weather for Founder's Day. Ariel was having fun with Hannah and Melissa, they'd just taken a break from shopping the flea market and decided to get smoothies from a vender.

Melissa walked off to meet her cousin.

Four people walked by not far from them heading toward the stage. Three of them went to her school the new guy at school-Ariel was pretty sure his name was Kerry, a girl named Tonya or Sonya, Mike Brewer and a guy she didn't know. They were all a year or two older then she and Hannah.

Ariel and Hannah watched the crowd as Ariel told her best friend "You should have gotten those earrings Hannah, they looked great on you."

"They were to expensive and they were kinda heavy."

Further toward the stage.

"Is Amy his new girlfriend or something?" Mike ask.

"I don't know" Kerry answered "I've never talked to her before, she just called and said David wanted us to meet him by the stage and that he had his hands full so he ask her to call." His southern accent noticeable but his friends were used to it.

They looked around as they walked but apparently didn't see David anywhere. Kerry got Hector, who was wearing a goofy purple hat like the one Ariel and her friends had tried on and joked about buying.

Kerry and his friends walked over to Hector and ask if he'd seen David.

"No, I haven't seen him, I wasn't even sure he was coming" Hector answered.

Kerry took out his cellphone and called David to see what was going on. Ariel saw David take his phone out of his pocket look at the number and id seeing that it was Kerry he answered. Ariel saw all this even though David was riding in a car with his friend Brian and was still a few blocks away.

Suddenly a high pitched noise gets the attention of everyone in that part of the founders day market's attention. Kerry hung up his phone shoving it in his pocket and took off running toward the stage.

Ariel is filled with dread that she doesn't understand as Hannah's comment about a cute actor is cute off by the noise. She and Hannah move to get a better view of what's causing the noise.

There is a crashing sound and a section of the lighting rig sways. People scream, the emergency stop is activated on the kiddy rides, and adults run toward the kids. The lighting section leans backward. People are carrying kids away from the rides, the kids are scaring and either crying or screaming or both.

The lighting leans further back, it seems to Ariel that it should have fallen by now but she's so relieved that it hasn't. The segment pivots to the side a little then finally falls. There's a loud noise as it hits an empty ride then the ground but it looks and sounds like everyone got safely away.

Ariel woke up in her bed Friday morning confused about the two dreams she'd just had. Her dad was going to taker her and Hannah to Founder's Day tomorrow and she didn't know if she should do something to prevent the possible tragedy. She started getting ready quickly hoping she could ask her mom's advice. When she walked into the kitchen she saw her had finishing breakfast and Marie her youngest sister in a highchair at the dinner table.

"Where's mommy?"

"Her boss called, she had to go into work early. Something about a problem with paperwork on one of the cases she's worked on, so I'm taking you girls to school."

Ariel can tell her dad is trying to do a lot of things at once so she starts setting the table.

"Thanks sweety, when you get done will you check on Bridgette and make sure she'll be ready."

"Sure, dad no problem."

A few minutes later they are all sitting around the table finishing breakfast, Bridgette talking about Founder's Day nearly nonstop.

"Ariel is everything alright? It's a Friday you don't seem very happy."

"I'm just still waking up I guess."

That day at school Hannah ask if Ariel minded Melissa joining them the next day. Ariel said it was fine. Hannah's parents gave Ariel a ride home after school but stopped at a gas station on the way the two girls decided to go in. Ariel had mostly put the dreams out of her mind.

The best friends walked the isles deciding if they wanted snacks but paying more attention to the conversation then to the shelves.

"Tomorrow should be fun, Melissa is over the really depressed stuff but we should probably be careful not to talk about boys and stuff in front of her to much."

"I understand and I like Melissa it's cool." Ariel heard a faint high pitch noise but nobody else in the store seemed to notice. "Chad really was a jerk to her." The unnerving noise disappeared.

"Yeah, I'm glad they finally broke up. That sounds bad but you know what I mean."

Ariel started to agree but heard a screaming noise, not loud but the pain and fear in it made her suddenly start looking around the store. Other then her reaction everything seemed normal.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I just thought I heard something." Ariel answered still hearing the sounds and as they started walking again the screaming got louder. "I think I'm going to go back to the car."

Ariel started walking and Hannah set the chips she had planned on buying on a shelf randomly following her best friend. The noise faded to silence then started getting worse again. Ariel suddenly stopped and Hannah almost got a face full of Ariel's long blonde hair not expecting her to stop.

Ariel turned quickly walking around Hannah but the noise only faded slightly then started getting worse again

"Ok, you're scaring me."

"I just keep hearing.." as Ariel turned to look at Hannah she noticed the pay as you go cellphones behind her friend's shoulder and the noise vanished.

"Hearing what?"

Ariel grabbed one of the phones off the shelf and the memory of everyone being away from the kiddy rides in time from her second dream flashed in her mind.

"Ariel, hello?"

"Sorry, Hannah. It's just one of those feelings I get, you know." Ariel said embarrassed and not understanding what was going on herself.

"Your feelings are usually right but it's telling you to buy a cell phone."

"I think so."

Ariel bought the phone wiping out half of the money she'd planned to spend the next day. When she got home she didn't mention the phone to her parents but plugged it in to charge overnight.


	2. Founders Day

Ariel's mom Allison worked late Friday night and slept in Saturday morning, so Ariel didn't get to talk to her about the dreams she'd had Thursday night.

Ariel wore different cloths then she had in her dream but when her dad pulled up at Hannah's house to pick the red head and Melissa up on the way to Phoenix's Founder's Day both were both wearing exactly what Ariel had dreamed they would be dressed.

Joe, Ariel's dad told the girls that as long as they checked in with him they could explore the market without him, as long as none of them wandered off from the group alone. As much as Ariel wished she could have talked to her mom she was glad it was her dad setting the rules for the day. Her mom's job with the DA's office and some of the things she saw in her own visions tended to make her overprotective.

Ariel tried not to think about the dream to much and just enjoy the beautiful day with her friends, after all the last dream she'd had ended with nobody being hurt. They had fun trying the foods and shopping, a couple times Ariel saw something she might have bought if she hadn't bought the cell phone that was in her purse. Buying it sounded kinda silly now but had seemed important the day before.

Hannah wondered why Ariel seemed distracted but didn't push it, Ariel would talk to her when she was ready. Ariel had gotten back to normal and was laughing then a few minutes later when Melissa put a purple hat on Hannah's head Ariel got quiet again.

Things had gotten back to normal a few minutes later with the only tension being trying not to say anything that would get Melissa thinking about her recent breakup again.

It was almost time for Melissa to meet her cousin and the girls were getting hot from walking around in the sun but they stopped at a jewelry vendor before taking a break. There were some earrings that had a stone that nearly perfectly matched Hannah's eyes. Aside from drawing attention to her eyes they looked really good with her red hair and light complexion but Hannah decided not to buy them. As the girls walked off Ariel hesitantly picked one of the earrings up and wasn't comforted by the fact that they were a couple times heavier then any earrings she owned.

Melissa spotted her cousin and walked off to meet her, Ariel and Hannah walked over to the smoothie stand. Ariel was scanning the crowd as they stood in line, then the two girls walked over to a shady spot near the entrance.

"I'm so glad it didn't rain this year." Hannah commented.

"What? Oh yeah.."

"What's wrong Ariel?"

"I don't see them."

"See who?"

"I had a dream last night or two versions of a dream, something bad is going to happen but I don't know how bad."

"Two dreams? What happened? Or is going to happen?"

"Part of the lighting is going to fall. For some reason if some of the guys from school are here then nobody gets hurt."

"And they aren't here? How do they make a difference?"

"I don't know why it matters but they aren't here."

Suddenly Ariel starts digging in her purse and pulls out the cell phone. She remembers Kerry's number from seeing it on David's phone id in her dream.

"Kerry, hi this is Amy, I'm David's friend." Hannah looked at Ariel like she'd lost her mind. "He's got his hands full but he wanted me to call you.." "Yeah everything's ok but he want's you to meet him by the stage, yeah around front." "He wants to show you something and he wants you to hurry." "I don't know, that's all he said, oh he didn't say just you so whoever's with you is cool."

Ariel hung up and looked at Hannah for support.

"Why did you just do that?"

"I think I was supposed to, I hope it's not to late."

Ariel saw Hector wearing the purple hat and waited hoping Kerry and the others would show up soon.

About a minute later Kerry, Mike, Sonya (Ariel had found out her name for sure the day before) and the other guy walked by. Ariel crossed her fingers and hoped. She walked behind the group to get a better view of whatever was going to happen.

As they walked toward the stage Mike waved at Hector and Kerry with his southern accent called back to Hector asking if he'd seen David. Hector said he hadn't and Kerry kept walking.

Ariel could only hear bits of the groups conversation but it seemed similar if not the same as what she'd heard in the second dream. Ariel was relieved that the group seemed to be moving faster then in the dream.

Hannah half whispered "So they make everything turn out all right?"

Ariel was still leading them behind and to the left of the group of older kids but trying not to get to close to look suspicious..

"They were the only thing different in the two dreams and Kerry ran off toward the lights as soon as things started to go wrong,"

"Kerry? So you're on a first name basis with him, nice when did that happen?"

Ariel could tell Hannah was trying to break the tension but was probably honestly curious too.

"I've never met him, just seen him around school. Me calling him a couple minutes ago was the first time I've ever talked to him."

"So what happens now?"

A high pitch noise drew everyone's attention. Kerry had just pulled out his cell phone and quickly shoved it back in his pocket. Kerry started running through the mostly empty crowd area in front of the stage, Ariel ran trying to keep an eye on him. The lighting on top of the scaffolding started to sway. Ariel lost sight of the southerner then caught a glimpse of him again, she was impressed by how fast he was. She lost sight of him again and after searching decided he must have climbed the fence somewhere.

There was a crashing sound and the lights continued to sway and she knew this could go either way. The screams chilled her especially the ones from the kiddy ride section.

Maybe, she should have made an anonymous call to warn about the lights of even get the day canceled but she hadn't thought anyone would believe her.

Adults have shut down the rides and are getting the kids out as quickly as they can but no one knows if there will be time. The light leans further back and Ariel tell's herself that this is more like the second dream but isn't sure. She absentmindedly grips the fence with one hand looking at the lights but not knowing what's going on. It looks like the last of the kids are getting carried to safety and Ariel finally exhales, she hears Hannah yelling her name but doesn't look back. The lighting array pivots to the side then falls, Ariel is the only person that doesn't flinch at the sound when it crashes down onto the empty ride then the pavement.

She walks along the fence looking up at the scaffolding searching for Kerry, for anything. She finally sees him climbing down the side adjacent to the storage area. When he's maybe 20 feet from the ground he lets go and drops to the ground. Ariel almost screams. Where he lands is downhill from her so she doesn't see the impact. Hannah reaches her.

"Ariel are you crazy? Why did you run off like that?"

Ariel walks along the fence trying to get a better view "I'm sorry I just.. just wanted to know what happened."

"Your plan worked, I don't think anybody got hurt."

Ariel is worried that Kerry may be the exception to that. Suddenly she sees him walking back toward the crowd, he was sweaty and kinda tired. He glancing behind him once but otherwise acting normal or trying to. He doesn't even look in her direction.

"Yeah your right" Ariel says hugging her friend "I think everybody is ok.".


End file.
